O Beija-Flor - Regulus Black (Complete)

LI -

TW: SEXUAL CONTENT ON THE FIRST PART OF THE CHAPTER (sort of)

AWKWARD AND YOUNG-ADULT WHO HAS NO IDEA WHAT THEY ARE DOING VIBES, SO BEAR WITH ME

With Narcissa taking a nap in the afternoon due to a potion that she had to take to heal her teeth and Remus and Sirius out to visit Harry in Hogwarts, Cecilia and Regulus were left alone together for the whole day.

The thing was that Cecilia didn't seem to realise it, Regulus thought, because by the time that Regulus was awake and going down the stairs to get breakfast with her, she was already dressed in leggings, a shirt and running-shoes.

"Good morning," he said, hesitant.

"Hi. Hm," she hesitated, glancing at the kitchen. "Kreacher has your breakfast ready in the kitchen, but I'm going out on a run. Unless you want me to wait for you and you want to come out with me."

Though Dumbledore had said to all the people in the house to avoid going out unless in a group and, in Narcissa's case, avoid going out at all, Cecilia still insisted on morning runs two to three times a week. Dumbledore knew (because of course, he knew), but he said nothing nor asked for anyone to say anything, which let her do it again and again.

"Do you want to go out there today?" he asked, trying his best not to blush. "We're pretty much alone."

Cecilia blinked a few times and glanced at the corridor that would lead to the front door.

Regulus noticed, then, that perhaps that was the very reason that Cecilia seemed eager to leave the house for a run.

"I have a lot of pent-up energy," she said.

"Don't worry, I won't keep you if that's what you want to do, Cecilia," he said trying to sound as gentle as he could and not as hurt as he felt.

"Regulus –" she started.

"You don't owe me explanations if you don't want to give them to me. If you thought it was important for me to know, you'd say it, wouldn't you? If I've done something wrong, for example," he said.

"Of course!"

"Then, it's alright."

She sighed.

"Regulus, it's not that you've done something wrong or that I don't feel safe with you, it's just that it's the first time since everything that we're truly alone, if you don't count Narcissa, who won't get up any time soon," she said. "And I have all these... thoughts and feelings that turned into energy and I fear that if I stay in here, alone with you, I might not be able to control myself."

"I'd never do something that you don't want to do with me, Cecilia," he said.

She thought it was absolutely adorable that he said 'do with me' and not 'anything that you didn't want'. She felt less responsible for the whole interaction, it was like the whole weight of the implication was shared between their shoulders equally as he stood in his sleeping black trousers and white shirt – there was a scar sticking out from his rolled-up sleeves.

"That's not what I meant," she said, finally managing to look away from the scar. He tugged at his sleeve almost as if trying to hide it away from her, not knowing that she didn't mind them all that much. "I meant that I don't trust myself around you."

"What?"

"I have this feeling that burns within me and... I can't control it sometimes," she said. "I've tried."